HOSPITAL BEDS • Elounor •

32 | Reaction

REACTION

Eleanor walked in with her eyes fixed on mine while Nancy took a few steps back to leave some room for El to sit down in my bed next to me. As soon as she reached my side I took the cups of coffee from her hand and left them on the table next to my bed so I could take her hands.

Everything happened like in slow motion and in complete silence, but Eleanor was not stupid. She knew there was something wrong and that it involved her, so when neither Nancy nor I spoke, her mood changed abruptly.

"Well? I'm waiting." Her voice was stern but her tiny hands were shaking already.

"Love, we-"

"Eleanor?" Nancy interrupted me calling her attention. "Louis and I need to tell you something but-"

"But what? You were talking about a funeral, GOSH!" She yelled clearly losing her patience.

"Eleanor, I squeezed her hands making her look at me only, "please, listen. This is not easy," I sighed and could see Nancy nodding for me to go on, "there are some bad news, babe."

"I can tell, can you please just tell me what happened, Lou?"

-

I'd gone through many tough situations in my life, but nothing was more devastating than telling your girlfriend that her father has just died.

However, when Nancy and I managed to tell Eleanor what had happened we couldn't believe her reaction. She remained silent and still, looking at nothing in particular as if her mind was somewhere else trying to process the news. My first idea was that she was in shock and that she would react later, crying and getting sad as most people would do. But after a minute, Eleanor looked me in the eyes and showed me a side smile, like excusing herself. Then she got up from my bed, took her cup of coffee and walked straight to the door.

"ELEANOR!" I called her completely confused.

"Yes?" she turned to us as if whatever she was doing was just the usual and nothing had happened.

"Love, where are you going?"

"Eleanor, sweetie, are you okay?" Nancy asked her as well.

"Of course," she smiled again and for the first time since I met her, I recognized a sad smile. "I'm going to call this man back. I'm just telling my new brother that I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT MY FATHER!" her voice raised so suddenly that it scared Nancy and me when it echoed in the room.

Eleanor stood next to the door, agitated and her whole body was shacking now while tears began forming in her eyes.

"El," I whispered extending my hand for her to come back next to me, but she shook her head and simply run away covering her face.

Without saying a word, Nancy ran out of the room chasing her and I was left alone, feeling useless because I was not even able to comfort my girlfriend when she needed me the most. I immediately took my phone and called my mother to tell her the news because no matter what happened, Eleanor would need people who loved her, and my family and I were the right ones.

-

When the door opened I literally threw my phone away to look who it was, but I got disappointed when Dr. Frederickson walked in.

"Hi, Louis," he waved at me, "how are you?"

"I don't know. I need to know how's El."

"That's exactly why I came. I knew you'd be going mad in here." He brought a chair next to my bed and sat down as he went through some papers he had. "Eleanor's with Nancy and her psychologist."